Tour de Peninsula week is officially under way, which means so many things to so many people that it's almost impossible to recount them here, except, perhaps, to compare it to that gleeful week of anticipation preceding Christmas.

Only with funny-looking, black cycling shorts.

Among the things we're excited to tell you in today's Tour Update -- the winners of the Tour de Peninsula VIP Reception Contest and details on meeting actual people from The Chronicle at the Tour, including your Peninsula Insider (ooooh).

For those of you who remain fully uninformed, this is the Tour de Peninsula, Stage 11: No rain, no pain -- 33 miles from Sequoia High School in Redwood City, uphill and down dale, along Sawyer Camp Trail and then back again. It's a ride, not a race. Proceeds benefit the Chronicle's Outdoors in the Classroom program, which teaches kids from elementary through high school about the environment.

Participants get The Dirty Shirt, the official T-shirt of the Tour de Peninsula, and lots of other stuff.

It's this Sunday.

And here's an exciting tidbit: The sponsors, including Volvo and Kaiser Permanente, are going to have booths at the Place de la Pavement, the pre-ride, post-ride gathering place. And that also includes The Chronicle, which means you can stroll by and meet actual reporters and columnists from this very newspaper. Try to contain yourself.

Anyway, the Tour de Peninsula ends where it starts, so how you get from there to here is up to you. This is a bike ride with two official shortcuts, and you're encouraged to improvise. Life is short, the course is long, take a shortcut.

CONTEST WINNERS: That brings us to the outcome of the Tour de Peninsula VIP Reception Contest, in which you were supposed to tell us the best excuse for taking a shortcut to be our guest at a VIP (Very Important Pedaler) reception Wednesday evening at Hotel Sofitel in Redwood City.

We liked our entries so much that instead of picking three winners, we picked four.

Winner No. 1: Rebecca Martin of Palo Alto, who will "need to take a shortcut . . . because I will deliver my baby right after I get off my bike. I must not keep the doctor waiting."

Winner No. 2: Alan Mela of San Jose, who said, "The kid has a one- speed bike and I'm tired of pushing it uphill."

Winner No. 3: Anne M. Riccio of Redwood City, who wrote, "My biological clock is running out and I have to take all the shortcuts that I can find."

Winner No. 4: Catherine Prevost of El Granada, who sent in a copy of the Tour course but added a major detour to Nordstrom. "This is just too, too obvious," she wrote.

ENTER, OR DON'T: That leaves the matter of actually entering. To do so, call (415) 668-2243 or the phone number at the bottom of this column. You can enter Sunday.

Or, you can skip the ride, volunteer to work at the Tour, and get a free lunch and a free Dirty Shirt. To volunteer, call (415) 668-2243.

Or, you can enter, sleep in on Sunday, stroll by around noon, pick up your shirt, pound down some free water from Albion and leave with a spring in your step and a song in your heart, knowing that in this era of excess, you've practiced true moderation.